In the Darkest Night
by Kudara
Summary: Alternate Universe in which the Protheans won a Phyrric victory over the Reapers, destroying both their Empire and nearly destroying the Mass Relay system. Mass Effect Universe with no Reapers, no Citadel, and no Citadel Council or Citadel race alliance. Many thanks to PMC65 for letting me use the Asari culture and characters from her stories.
1. Chapter 1: Under the Master's Boot

In the Darkest Night

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.

Warning: Violence

Authors Note: Alternate Universe in which the Protheans won a Phyrric victory over the Reapers, destroying both their Empire and nearly destroying the Mass Relay system. Mass Effect Universe with no Reapers, no Citadel, and no Citadel Council or Citadel race alliance. Many thanks to PMC65 for letting me use the Asari culture and characters from her "Thessian Whisper" and "The Shepardess and the Questing Beast" in this story. The timeline is in both Earth time in Anno Domini (AD) years and in Asari Republics Republic Era (RE) years which is marked from the beginning of the League of Republics upon Thessia, the first unified Thessian government. The story begins in 4714 RE/2190 AD.

Race Notes: Accurate weights and heights will be used as per the game information and not the visual depiction in the game. Thus the Krogan are well over 7 foot tall, Turians and Hanar are next at just over 6.5', Asari range from 6.5' to 6' as that is how PMC65 described them in her stories, Salarians, Batarians, Quarians and Humans average at just under 6' in height while Volus and Vorcha are among the shortest races at 5 feet and under.

Rating: Mature

Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.

Revision History: 10/4/2013

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Chapter One – Under the Master's Boot

Slave 28907's rifle rose, the barrel's sight centering upon the forehead of the tall, blue-skinned alien female. Her finger tightened on the trigger before the blue-white energy wreathing the asari's form could either be unleashed against her or used to protect the alien from her shot. In the next instant the tentacled head jerked back, an ugly hole blossoming in the slightly-scaled blue skin of the forehead while the metal wall behind the alien was splattered with whitish bits of bone, brain and purplish colored blood. The young asari huddled in the corner behind the adult began screaming in mingled horror and fear as she was splattered with her protector's blood. In the next moment, punctuated by an even louder cry from the asari youth, the body collapsed onto cream colored tiles; that which had animated it in life slipping away into whatever awaited it once life ended.

Blank grey eyes focused upon the still form of the asari's body, and then stared into the now empty blue eyes. The Masters said that animals weren't fit to go to the same place they did after death. Masters went to a place where they had grand homes and food while animals went to an empty place until they were reborn as slaves to the Masters. Many of the asari had been sent to the empty place along with many of her fellow slaves, perhaps it would be some time before they were reborn to serve.

Sudden motion tore 28907 abruptly from her morbid thoughts. Refocusing her attention upon her surroundings, the slave jerked her weapon back up as she went on guard. The younger asari that had been huddled in the corner was now latched onto the dead body of the adult asari. To the slave's unfamiliar eye, judging by her own race's standard, the younger asari appeared to still be a child, but one just beginning to grow into an adult. The young asari's earlier screams changed into deep sobbing cries as she began repeating a word over and over in her alien tongue and wasting water from her eyes. The slave soldier hesitated for a moment, an emotion that almost looked like regret flickering briefly in her pale eyes as she observed the scene before her.

In the next moment the guttural, harsh voice of one of the Masters snarled over the speakers embedded in the slave's helmet and the brief flash of emotion was buried once again as blankness filled her grey eyes and stilled her features. "Drag those still living into the open areas between the buildings. Kill any that resist you. It's time these animals were properly collared and taught to serve their masters."

Over two decades as a batarian slave had taught 28907 well what happened to those that failed to promptly follow a Master's command…and it was never pleasant for the slave. As for outright disobedience - the Masters took great pleasure in prolonging a rebellious slave's punishment before allowing them to finally die. That thought had the slave immediately moving to obey the command. Striding swiftly toward the young asari still clinging and crying over the body of the adult, she grabbed a handful of the warm looking green dress covering the child's back and forcefully tore the alien youth away from the dead body.

To her surprise the child twisted, the slender body turning and sliding out of the thick but fine material and leaving the slave with the empty piece of clothing as the young asari darted back toward the body lying on the tile floor. The slave soldier's grey eyes narrowed and the barrel of her weapon rose and pointed toward the naked back of the kneeling child as she considered whether to kill the child now and send her to the empty place along with the adult or take her to the Masters to be taught to serve them. Memories rose within the slave's mind of the heavy boots of the Masters stamping and stamping and stamping. The thin, high-pitched screams that rose shrieking and then grew thin and faded before being drown out by the Masters laughter. Heavy gauntleted hands that stuck and split her skin, leaving the scars that marred her face across her lips and cheeks. The screams she couldn't stop herself from making when the Masters activated the pain giving device they had put in her head. The slave's finger tightened on the trigger while the young asari, unaware of how close death hovered near her, continued making distressed noises and weeping over the dead body.

Seconds passed as the slave stared unblinkingly at the asari child while one brutal memory after another played out within her mind. _'The Masters are waiting,' _the sharp, warning thought within her mind broke 28907 out of her dark reverie. Drawing in a sharp breath as her features hardened the slave moved forward once again, drew back her hand and struck the child sharply across the back of her crested head. The blow sent the child sprawling forward across the dead body as the young asari's cries shifted from grieving to shocked and pained at the sudden attack. Not giving the child time to recover the slave moved forward again this time wrapping her hand around the youngster's neck and physically lifting the young alien until the child attempted to stand on her own. As soon as the slave soldier released the youngster, the young asari whirled around, an expression of mingled fear and anger at the harsh handling upon her face, only to be met with the force of a gauntleted hand. The young asari stumbled backward with a pain filled shriek her blue hued hands going to her face. Shocked blue eyes stared up fearfully at the slave for a moment before the child began rapidly speaking in a high, fear-filled tone.

'_Animals do not speak, only the Masters speak.' _Without conscious thought guiding it, the slave's gauntleted hand struck the child across the face once again, the second blow splitting the young asari's lip and sending the youth sprawling upon the tiled floor from its force. Frightened vivid blue eyes met impassive grey ones for a moment through the clear faceplate of the slave's helmet and then the child was scrambling wildly away in an effort to escape. 28907's weapon rose once again and the young asari froze as she stared at the muzzle pointed at her chest. Jaw clenched hard enough that her teeth ground together the slave considered the child lying on the floor with narrowed eyes. The Master's orders had been clear, kill any that resisted. Her finger curled, bringing it into contact with the trigger of her rifle. Frozen with fear the young asari remained still and blessedly silent as she stared up at the alien soldier, a trail of purple blood flowing down her chin and onto her neck and chest from her split lip.

After what seemed like forever but was in reality only a few seconds, the slave eased her finger away from the trigger of her rifle and instead threw the dress she was still holding in her other hand at the child. Silently she gestured for the child to put it on. 28907 knew that the young asari's behavior would draw the Master's attention to her soon enough and that she might not survive their punishments. Bringing the youth to them almost naked would immediately make the Master's notice her; depending on the Master that noticed bad things might happen to the young asari with skin the color of a midday sky…very bad and hurtful things. It was never good to draw a Master's notice in that manner. Better that the child be delivered to the Masters covered, learning how to behave as the Masters wanted in the next few days would be difficult enough without learning what else the Masters liked from their female slaves and from some of the male slaves.

28907 watched as the young asari glanced down at the green dress which had landed upon her chest. The asari's breasts were just beginning to swell in a sign of beginning adulthood, indicating that the slave had been right in her approximation of the alien youth's age. The blue-skinned child looked back up and her mouth opened as if she were about to speak once again. The slave soldier lunged forward, thrusting the muzzle of her weapon close to the child's face, causing the young asari to make a sharp, thin sound of fear as she jerked away from it. 28907 held her threatening stance for a moment longer before backing away to her former position. Once there she gestured sharply for the child to dress. Too much time had passed; soon one of the Masters would come looking for her. Then both of them would be punished or perhaps even killed; her for her disobedience, the young asari for resisting. Finally the child seemed to understand that she should not speak and should instead put on her dress in silence. As the youth pulled her dress on over her crested head, the slave allowed herself a small sigh of relief. Perhaps this one would live through the Masters training. Perhaps.

Once the young asari was dressed, 28907 motioned with her rifle, indicating that the youngster should stand. Her blue eyes fixed upon the slave soldier with wary fear the entire time and holding one hand to her mouth to staunch the bleeding, the child rose as ordered. The slave was surprised at the youngster's height, even though the asari was not full grown the youngster was already nearly as tall as she, though much slimmer in build than 28907. The slave's grey eyes dropped momentarily to the body of the adult, perhaps she shouldn't be surprised given the fact that the Asari as a race were tall…taller even than most of the Masters. 28907's skin pricked as a chill of fear washed over her at her thought as if one of the Masters might reach into her mind and see it – the Asari were animals just as she, tallness did not matter.

The young asari flinched and stepped back as 28907 approached her, but the slave ignored the reaction as she reached around to seize a handful green dress at the child's back. This time the asari youth did not attempt to escape the slave soldier's grip as 28907 pushed her into movement, doubtless sensing that any further resistance would result in her death. Though the child did not resist, she did slow and turn her head to stare back at the body of the adult asari, water running down her cheeks from her eyes. The Masters would beat her if they saw it, but 28907 ignored it as she pushed the youth in front of her through the doorway of the room and the dead body was no longer visible.

The metal building they were in looked somewhat similar to a lower caste Master home, though with more curving lines than those buildings made by the Masters. The building was not as big as most those Masters lived in, but it was still not a place for animals unless they were ordered there by the Masters to serve them. This was where the asari miners and their families had been living; which made the Masters angry because the Asari were not superior like the Masters, not even the lower caste Masters. The Asari were just animals like 28907 and were not supposed to live in buildings like these. Animals, if they were obedient and served the Masters well, were allowed to live in slave buildings where they ate, bathed and rested with the other slaves under the watch of the Masters who were slave overseers. Animals, if they were not obedient and the Masters didn't chose to kill them, were often punished by being put outside in wire cages where they barely had room to move around and the overseer Masters sprayed them with cold water when they began to stink.

The slave and young asari emerged from the building to stand upon a concrete path that joined with a wider walkway which ran between one row of metal buildings and the next. The entire area was lit by bright lights suspended from the cavern roof many meters above them. 28907 had heard the Masters call this planet Zesmeni and the asari here lived and worked in sealed caverns such as this below the surface of the planet because one could not breathe its methane-ammonia atmosphere. Other than its name however, the slave knew very little about the cold, dimly-lit planet besides the fact that it had many mineral and metal deposits. That was why they were here, the Masters desired this planet for the Hegemony and they were taking it by force from the Asari animals that lived upon it now. The asari that survived the attack would be collared and taught to know their proper place – to serve the Masters. Then they would be put back to work in the same mines they were working in now, only they would be mining metals and minerals for the Masters.

"Slave," a commanding voice growled from the slave soldier's left a few seconds after they stepped outside.

28907 recognized the voice immediately. It belonged to one of the overseer Master's, one the slave feared for how hard he hit for even the slightest failure. Several of the scars upon 28907's face had come from his gauntleted hands. Anxious to not offend, the slave soldier immediately tightened her hold upon the young asari's dress and using her weight and strength pushed the slender form down to her hands and knees upon the pavement. The child's bare hands slammed down on the pavement, only just stopping her face from meeting the rough surface as well. The young alien cried out in fear and pain, but a quick open handed cuff alongside the tentacled head persuaded her to be silent after one additional pained yelp. 28907 waited only a bare second longer to ensure the child remained silent before literally dropping to her knees, ignoring the momentary flash of pain that ran up her shins at the impact, and bowed her head as she awaited the Master's command.

The sound of armored footsteps grew louder as the tall, thick, brown-skinned batarian male in heavy black and brown armor approached and then stopped in front of the kneeling slave soldier and asari child. Slave 28907 remained still, her head bowed and already tilted to the left in a show of submission and acknowledgement of the Master's superiority. The long healed scar on her cheek which ran along her right cheekbone just below her eye had been from one of the fitting buckles on the back of the Master's armored gauntlet after he felt that she had not properly displayed her respect for him when she was much younger…in fact almost the same relative age as the young asari kneeling next to her.

"So few," the Master sounded displeased, sending a chill of absolute fear through 28907. Her instructions had been clear, kill all those that resisted and yet the Master was not pleased. The slave cowered, bowing her head further and lowering herself closer to the ground as her apprehension of punishment grew. "You killed only the ones that resisted their subjugation?" the Master's voice demanded a response to his question.

Slave 28907 made an affirmative barking sound, its nervous underlying tone betraying her sharp anxiety, and put as much earnestness into the noise as possible. Animals were not allowed to speak, but they were allowed to make a few sounds when the Masters asked questions as long as they remembered the rule – animals never disagreed with the Masters. One either made an affirmative sound or remained silent. Any noise resembling dissent or disagreement with a Master brought swift and brutal punishment, punishment which usually ended with the offending slave's eventual death.

"Hmm," the Master rumbled, still sounding displeased. Slave 28907 remained as still and quiet as possible, barely even breathing as she silently hoped that the overseer Master would not take out his displeasure at the lack of living asari upon her. The slave did not pray as she had no concept of there being anything out there that would listen to her, certainly the Masters rarely listened to any pleading sounds made by the slaves. If anything, such noises usually made them angrier and more violent rather than less.

Dark brown armor clad feet shifted as the Master turned his attention toward the asari by the slave soldier's side. "Young," he observed, sounding disgusted, "it will take decades before this animal is able to do any decent amount of work in the mines. After a brief pause he added condescendingly, "At least once its collared and trained to know its proper place as a slave it will serve the Hegemony for several centuries."

28907 was confused by the Master's behavior, though the lessening of anger in his tone at least gave her hope that she wasn't about to be punished. Master's didn't usually talk to the slaves except to give them orders or ask specific questions, but the overseer Master had done neither so she remained still and silent rather than risk angering him. Out of the corner of her eye the slave soldier saw the asari youth look up and then open her dark blue lips. 28907's grey eyes widened in dismay as she watched the child made the mistake of speaking to the Master.

"Animals do not speak!" the overseer Master growled at the young asari before she even got out her first word and then struck the child across the side of her head with enough force that the blue-skinned youngster was knocked sideways into the slave soldier.

Kneeling as she was upon her knees with one hand gripping the asari's dress and the other holding her assault rifle the slave soldier wasn't prepared for the impact of the youngster against her. Thrown off balance, she used the butt of her rifle against the ground to brace herself while tightening her grip upon the young asari's clothing to make sure the alien didn't attempt to rise and escape. Despite the Master's desire for living asari, such an act would surely cause the Master to decide to kill the blue-skinned youngster.

Instead of attempting to escape however, the young asari flung her arms up around her head and shouted a word at the Master. Dread rose inside 28907 and she had to resist an impulse to push the young alien away from her. She did not want to share the other animal's punishment. Such an act however, would draw the angry overseer Master's attention to her and for now he seemed solely focused on the young asari. She would remain still and hope that the Master saw her obedience and did not take out his anger upon her. In response to the show of disobedience the Master clenched his hand and slammed down his armored fist upon the young asari's head, causing the youngster to cry out in pain as she collapsed upon the hard surface of the walkway with her arms still wrapped around her head.

The Master bent down and seized the asari child by the neck with one large hand dragging her upward as she thrashed against his grip. The overseer Master drew back his hand once more and then stopped before striking the alien youngster, an unpleasant smile twisting his lips. "I'll have a better way of punishing you in a moment," he commented as he lifted the blue-skinned child closer before declaring in a menacing tone, "In fact, I'll put it in myself." He released the young asari, letting her collapse upon the ground. Turning his attention to 28907 he directed, "Bring this animal to the gathering point," he stared down at the young asari for a moment longer, a sneer curling his lips and showing off his pointed teeth before turning and setting off toward the gathering point himself.

28907 remained still and kneeling until the overseer Master was a distance away before risking a glance over at the asari youth. The alien was lying curled up on the ground, her arms still wrapped around her head. Deep sobs shook the young asari's slender body. The slave soldier's grey eyes flickered briefly back toward the Master, verifying that he was still walking away from them before she dared straighten and turn her full attention to the asari.

She knew full well what was about to happen to the young alien, the overseer Master would take a knife and cut into the young asari's scalp down to the bone. Then he would attach the device that created pain which would then cut through the bone and into the asari's brain. Finally they would use a glue to seal the skin back over the device and stop the bleeding. The entire process would hurt terribly and then overseer Master had already promised to use the pain giving device to punish the alien child. The slave stared down at the youngster, her lips curved downward as the thought crossed her mind that she should have killed the child earlier, now though the Master wanted this one to remain alive and 28907 would not disobey him.

Rising to her feet, the slave contemplated how to get the asari child to move as the other animal showed no sign of getting up from where she was curled up on the ground. Out of the corner of her eye something moved, 28907 whipped her head around, tensing in anticipation of either finding cover or kneeling if there was another Master approaching. She let out her breath and relaxed as soon as she recognized the distinctive grayish-brown armor of another slave soldier, 28934 a slightly taller male.

There were more male animals than females in her slave unit and that was true for all the other slave units she had seen as well. Why she didn't know for certain, but she suspected it was because male animals were stronger than female animals and did not tire as quickly when wearing armor and weapons. However, male animals seemed be punished more than female animals by the Masters who seemed to be more watchful for any sign of disobedience from them. Some of the male animals and a few of her fellow female animals had eyes that were as hard as any Master's when they looked at you. Often those that had hard eyes were almost as likely to hit their fellow slaves for anything they became angry over as the Masters. 28907 tried to stay away from those slaves that had hard eyes. It was difficult enough to not anger the Masters; she didn't like having to be as careful around the other slave soldiers.

Slave 28934 did not have hard eyes, his eyes were a slightly darker brown than her own and often seemed to warm whenever he saw her. 28907 liked being around the other male animal, she liked the slight smile that curved his lips when he saw her and there wasn't a Master near them. She liked the broadness of his shoulders and the muscles which bunched underneath his dark skin.

28934 made a questioning sound as he drew near, looking curiously toward the asari child upon the ground.

In response, 28907 pointed toward the child and then toward the designated gathering point as she barked once in a firm tone. The tone she had used was one the slaves used with one another when they were obeying a Master's orders. This was as complex a communication as the Master's would allow between the slaves, anything more creative would draw their attention and their anger. The overseer Masters always closely watched the slaves and punished those they felt were trying to behave as if they were Masters and not animals.

28934's brown eyes widened in surprise, but he voiced only a quiet acknowledging bark as he stopped beside her.

The two of them stared down at the asari youth whose sobs had quieted somewhat even though she was still wasting water. 28907 frowned; the punishment that the Master had given the child had been mild compared to what would happen to the young asari in the near future. All of this – this lying down on the ground, the sobbing and wasting of water – would only make the Master's angrier with the child and they would punish her even more for it. The female slave soldier had a bad feeling that the Master's might make this young asari their example to the other new slaves if the child kept up her rebellious behavior.

28934 made a motion with his hand and arm toward the child, mimicking an action of picking up the asari by lifting her by her arms. The grey-eyed female slave nodded after a moment, it did seem the best way of getting the child to the designated gathering site since she showed no sign of getting up on her own. Certainly the overseer Master's anger would not be lessened by waiting; instead he was certain to become angrier with the young asari.

28907 took a few steps so that she was on the other side of the child from the brown eyed male, then the two of them knelt and grabbed the young asari's arms so that they could lift her to her feet between them. As soon as the child realized what they were doing she began to struggle between them and even worse…shouting something at them…speaking. The two slave soldiers looked at one another, their expressions mirroring each other's fear. This asari animal would be killed by the Master's for her rebelliousness and disobedience and since they were the one's bringing her to the Masters' they were likely to be punished as well.

Almost as one, their gazes shifted back to the young asari between them as the two slave soldiers considered how to get the child to stop speaking, stop struggling, and stop crying before they took her to the Masters. Just as 28934 turned his head, the two slaves heard the distinctive sound of sniper round propelled at supersonic speeds. The male slave soldier's entire body snapped back as his faceplate and part of his standard slave issue helmet shattered from the force of the round, the sharp shards slicing into his face. Only the fact that his head had been turning when the sniper round struck saved the slave soldiers life; it should have been both his helmet and skull that shattered and not just his helmet.

28907 uttered a short, shocked sound as she took one step toward her fellow slave soldier, her grey eyes fearful at the sight of his blood, before her combat training snapped her out of her surprise at the unexpected attack. Stepping forward she wrapped one arm around the young asari and forcibly dragged the child with her as she retreated back to the same building from which she had earlier taken the young blue-skinned alien. It was the nearest source of cover and judging from the way the sniper round had struck 28934 the attacking asari were on a rooftop, or either in or on the ventilation ducts suspended from the cavern ceiling far above them. One thing the slave soldier was certain of after being in several battles with Asari forces, where there was one asari sniper there were always more asari snipers. Focusing on the one firing at you usually left you in the line of sight of another, which was why she was taking cover inside the building instead of outside the building despite the fact that her visibility would be severely reduced.

As soon as 28907 stepped through the door, she released the young asari and shoved the child further into the room. Whirling, she returned to the doorway and looked out just in time to witness 28934, who had managed to follow them despite the wounds to his face, being shot a second time in the shoulder. The dark skinned slave soldier's body twisted around from the shot and he fell to his knees and one hand, dropping his assault rifle. 28907 didn't hesitate, darting back out of the building she stopped by the other slave's good side and hauled him upward to his feet. As soon as he was standing, she shifted her position so that his arm was slung across her shoulders and then helped him toward the building. 28907's kinetic shields flickered several times and then depleted with a snapping noise just before they reached the door, indicating that they had just stopped several weapon rounds from hitting the female slave soldier's armor. In the next moment the two slaves slipped through the doorway of the building and into the shelter of its walls.

Knowing by the way that 28934 was slumping against her and making her have to support an increasing amount of his weight that he was severely injured, 28907 dragged her fellow slave toward the nearest inside wall. Once there she pushed him up against the wall and used it as a support to lower him to the floor. The first thing the female slave soldier noticed as she eased out from under his arm was that he was losing a lot of blood from his wounded shoulder. A steady stream of bright red flowed freely from the injury and down his armor. The amount of blood loss along with his glassy looking eyes and ashen skin was enough to tell her that he would likely die from his wound unless she could soon stop the bleeding. A sharp pain seemed to slice into 28907's chest at the realization and without conscious thought she gave voice to her pain, making a wordless keening sound of distress as she pressed her hands against the wound. She glanced anxiously over at the male slave's face and was disappointed to see that his eyes were closed. He looked as if he were unconscious.

Out of the corner of her eye, the slave soldier noticed that the asari child was still nearby though the alien had moved into the hallway which lead to the room where she had earlier killed the adult asari. Glancing over she met the resentment-filled blue eyes of the youngster for a brief moment before the young asari's gaze shifted to the wounded male slave and the red blood flowing down his armor. The female slave soldier returned her attention to the male, besides the wound in his shoulder; he was also bleeding from several deep lacerations on his face. Thankfully none of the shards from his helmet had struck his eyes, even though one had come close, slicing into his cheek beneath his right eye.

28907 knew that she should leave 28934 and focus her attention on the asari animals who were opposing the Masters. If a Master were present they would punish her for trying to stop male slave soldier's bleeding instead of fighting against the attacking asari. She did not leave the male slave soldier however, there was no Master here, no Master to see what she was doing and order her to leave the other slave with his warm brown eyes to bleed and die. As the sounds of the battle continued outside, 28907 continued pressing her hand hard against gaping wound in the male slave's shoulder, finally managing to slow the bleeding.

28934 lifted his uninsured arm and shakily placed his hand over hers where they were pressed against his wound. The female slave soldier turned her head slightly so that she could see his face. His brown eyes were open once again and showed more awareness than they had earlier. A tentative smile curved her lips and then she looked back at the wound. Despite him being more responsive, it was still a bad injury and if she wasn't pressing on it as she was she knew it would start bleeding again. Her smile, slight as it had been, vanished, as a cold, sick feeling grew in her chest. The Masters killed slaves who were badly wounded, in the past she had watched the Masters kill slaves who had been less wounded than 28934. The male slave soldier's brown eyes shifted away from her gaze, looking off to her left, toward the doorway and then widened with alarm.

Before 28907 could react a female sounding voice shouted in Batarian, "Do not move, do not reach for your weapons or you will be killed."

The female slave soldier froze her grey eyes meeting the brown ones of the male as her thoughts raced. The asari soldiers would kill them if she moved, she did not doubt that, but if she did not resist then the Masters would kill them once they dealt with the asari animal's attack. She heard the asari speak with one another in their own language for a few seconds while she glanced over at her hands still pressing against 28934's wounded shoulder.

"Continue cooperating and we will call in a medic to tend to your male friend," a different asari spoke this time, one with a slightly lower toned voice than the first.

The offer confused 28907, the asari had shot him, they were the enemy, why offer to help them? She did not know what to do, and was only certain of one thing...either the asari would kill them if she attempted to resist now or the Masters would kill them later for not resisting. There seemed to be no way for she and 28934 to escape death.

The asari began speaking in their own language again only this time Slave 28907 heard the young asari respond to them. Curious as to how many asari soldiers were present, the slave soldier risked a quick glance over her shoulder toward where she could hear their voices. There were three tall asari soldiers dressed in their distinctive brown layered armor and backswept black helmets. She only studied them for a few seconds before turning back to the male slave, long enough to tell that two of the asari had almost the same color of blue skin while the third asari had slightly darker blue skin. Her action hadn't gone unnoticed; all three of the asari had been looking directly at her. Only two of them had their weapons pointed at her. The third asari, one of the two lighter skinned ones, had a mask-like dark blue coloring around her eyes as well as black markings above them which looked strangely like her own species eyebrows. That asari had an omni-tool opened upon her wrist and appeared to be scanning the two slaves. The asari didn't do anything in response besides stare back at her, but it was enough to let 28907 know that there was no chance of surprising them.

28907 focused her attention on the male slave once again, leaning forward slightly as she took a look at his wound. Blood still seeped out from around her hands where they pressed against the wounded flesh, but it was a slow bleed and not a quick one. It was also obvious to the female slave that if she stopped pressing her hands against the wound that the male slave would quickly bleed out, to attack the asari she would have to let him die. She looked back to his face, met his brown eyes, eyes that were focused upon her with the warm expression she had seen in them before, the one that caused strange feelings in her. She did not want to let him die to attack the asari, unfortunately that still left the Masters and their anger at them for not attacking and their punishment would be worse than letting him die from his wound. 28907 frowned, her thoughts chasing each other around at a frenetic pace, before she could decide upon an action however; the choice was taken out of her hands.

Behind her the asari began speaking in agitated tones and then a moment later the slave collars around her and 28934's necks started making a beeping noise. Such a simple sound but for the two slaves it meant death. Slave collars acted as deterrents to any escape attempts, not only because they were location transmitters, but also because they contained enough explosives to kill the slave when they detonated. The beeping sound meant that the Masters had just activated the explosives in the collars.

Grey eyes met brown and 28907 let out a sad, resigned noise as she saw the acceptance of what was about to happen in his eyes. They were slaves of the Masters and sooner or later the Masters always killed them, the only question was when and how. The asari behind them were making agitated sounds and she saw one of them go to the young asari and pull her further down the hallway and out of sight. She ignored them however as she removed her hands from the male slaves wound, it did not matter now if he bled. Her gaze lowered to her armored hands which were covered with his blood.

She clenched them and then focused upon his face again...he was wasting water from his eyes…. The female slave raised one hand and laid her fingertips gently against the dark brown skin of his face, avoiding the lacerations caused by the shattering of his helmet. Water rose within her own eyes but did not fall. Maybe things could be different in the empty place where there were no Masters. Maybe they would be together there, her and the male slave. Maybe they would not be born again for a long time.

The sound from their collars became one shrill continuous noise...


	2. Chapter 2: In Defense of Zesmeni

In the Darkest Night

Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.

Warning: None

Authors Note: This is primarily a history chapter to explain the setting of the story.

Rating: Mature

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Revision History: 10/19/2013; 11/5/2013

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Chapter Two – The Defense of Zesmeni

The detonation of the slaves' collars was powerful enough to shake the pre-fabricated home and reverberate through its structure. The Batarians put enough explosive material into the collars of their newest species of slave soldiers to almost completely incinerate their bodies. It was an attempt on their part to prevent either the Asari or Salarians from studying their corpses. Unfortunately for the Hegemony's efforts at security through obscurity however, both races had already studied several living specimens of the new species.

While the Asari Republics and the Salarian Union were not the closest of allies, both governments recognized they needed to cooperate with one another against the Batarian Hegemony as neither wanted to see the Hegemony grow into any more of a threat than they were currently. One of the most notable areas of cooperation between the two governments was the carrying out of joint intelligence operations against the Hegemony. Both Asari Republic Commandoes and Salarian Union's Special Tactics Group Operatives were highly skilled infiltrators; while the Asari Commandoes had a definite combat edge gained by centuries of experience, the STG were undeniably more technically oriented and skilled. Combine the two forces into one team and even the Hegemony's best attempts to prevent infiltration and intelligence gathering by its enemies faltered and failed. Several joint intelligence operation teams had been able to get close enough to Batarian positions to not only make direct observations of the new slave race's interaction with their Batarian masters, but also take medical scans of the species without being detected by the slaves, the Hegemony troops, or the excess of surveillance equipment deployed by the Batarians to prevent just such infiltration attempts.

What the joint intelligence operations teams had discovered was enlightening. The Batarian Hegemony called the new race 'Humans,' which was presumably the species' name for themselves. The Humans were a sapient mammalian race with two genders which appeared remarkably physically similar to the Asari. There were distinct differences of course between the two races, both major and minor. The two most obvious physical differences were in skin color and the presence of hair. Humans ranged in skin color from pale cream to dark brown instead of varying shades of blue, and the race was hirsute, or covered with hair instead of smooth-skinned like either the Asari or Salarians. The amount of hair ranged in coverage from barely noticeable to distinctly present such as upon their arms and legs. The presence of hair follicles upon their heads and areas of the male's faces indicated that they would naturally grow thick hair there as well if not for the fact that the Batarians shaved the hair of their slave soldiers in those locations for better fitting of their armor helmets.

Both governments suspected that the Humans had been relatively primitive when their home world had been found by the Hegemony. It would not have taken the Batarians long to conquer a pre-FTL (faster than light) capable civilization and enslave the entire species. As for when, the information they found suggested that the Hegemony had discovered the humans no more than a century ago and prior to 4704 RE which was the year the Batarians launched their second attack upon the Asari colony world of Esan. The Batarians had previously attempted to conquer Esan in 4513 RE but had failed in that attack. This time the Hegemony led their attack with vorcha and slave troops of a then unknown race, using both as disposable shock troops to overrun and wear down the local Defense Forces before finally sending in Batarian troops to wipe out the weakened Asari defenders and claim the planet for the Hegemony. That battle had been the first time the Humans had been encountered by either the Asari or the Salarians.

The revelation of a new sapient race, especially a race enslaved by the Batarians opened up a tantalizing possibility for the Republics. If the Humans were as psychologically similar to the Asari as they were physically similar, then they would view any race that liberated them from the Hegemony as welcome saviors. The Republics could possibly gain another ally that might prove to be as trustworthy as the Elcor's Courts of Dekkuna. First however, they needed to discover the location of the Human's home world, something they had not yet discovered during their joint intelligence gathering efforts with the Salarian Union. The Hegemony was making an unusual effort to keep as much information as possible about this race secret, and that in and of itself was intriguing to High Command and the Matriarchs since it indicated that the Batarians feared their enemies finding the home world of this new race.

The need to gather more information about these Humans, preferably before the Salarian STG found out and made the attempt themselves, led Asari High Command to issue a directive to its commanders: If the opportunity arose to gather information leading to the discovery of disabling the Batarian's slave collars without compromising the safety of Asari civilians or significantly compromising the safety of their forces, then they were to make every effort to gain such information. Once the collars could be disarmed, Asari forces were to capture one or more of the Humans for questioning. This was where the Asari would have an advantage over the Salarians. They knew that the Batarians did not permit their slaves to speak and were uncertain if the Human slaves knew how to speak. The Asari didn't need to rely on the Humans telling them what they knew however, they could get the information directly from the Humans minds by melding with them.

That recently issued directive was the reason why the commander of the Asari Republics Fourth Rapid Reaction Force, upon observing two Human slaves with a captive asari child temporarily separated from the main Batarian unit, had directed Lt. Larisa Kurin to take two of her huntresses to rescue the child and if possible obtain the desired data for High Command.

The small strike group's initial plan had been guided by the need to ensure the safety of the asari child, thus they had decided to time their attack in conjunction with their unit's attack upon the Batarian's main force. Huntress Aeian T'Goni would kill the male Human slave from her sniper position on a nearby rooftop and then Lt. Kurin and Huntress Liara T'Soni would disable and capture the female slave. The three asari had not anticipated that the female slave would choose to pull the asari child toward the safety of a nearby home instead of engaging them. Then they had assumed the slave would use the child as a hostage, instead she had returned for the male slave and helped him into the building as well. Certainly when they had entered the home they hadn't expected to find the female slave staunching the bleeding shoulder of the male slave and the asari child watching the two humans from the hallway instead of being held captive.

Before this male and female, any Human slaves the Asari forces had come in contact with had always attacked them no matter the hopelessness of their situation. These two slaves seemed different however, giving every indication of valuing the life of one another other over mindlessly attacking. While nothing had gone as they expected when the three asari had planned out their attack, the unique situation they found inside the home gave Lt. Kurin's team the perfect opportunity to get the information High Command desired from the two slaves tracking collars.

Everything seemed to be going well until one of the pieces of equipment in the Batarian camp had detected that the last of the slaver race had been killed and automatically signaled for the slave's tracking collars to activate and detonate on a delayed timer. Ultimately there had been nothing they could do for the two slaves, only helplessly witness the humans resigned reaction to their fate, and their grief and tenderness with one another as the audible alerts from their collars began the countdown to their deaths. With only seconds left to escape the blast radius the four asari took shelter at the far end of the hallway that joined the front room of the home with the rest of the building.

As the reverberation from the explosion died away, the youngest huntress of the three, Liara T'Soni, bowed her head and with regret murmured, "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess." The asari maiden had tried to access the control functions of the slaves' collars and disarm them, but had not been able to crack the security programs designed to prevent just such efforts within the seconds she had to make the attempt. As it was, she had kept trying for so long that Lt. Kurin had come back for her and physically hauled her out of the front room and into the hallway just moments before the detonation.

Lt. Kurin turned to her, a displeased frown creasing a line between her brows as she regarded her subordinate. "I ordered you to leave. By staying, you risked not only your own life but mine as well since I had to pull you away. That left T'Goni as the sole Huntress to protect the child."

Liara turned to face the commando, defensiveness writ upon her expression, "I..." She began and then fell silent as she faltered before the stern gaze of the Lieutenant. After a moment's silence she responded, "My apologies Lieutenant, I did not mean to endanger you or anyone else," her cheeks flushing a darker blue in embarrassment.

Lt. Kurin's expression softened as her steel grey eyes drifted up the hallway. "I understand why you tried, but you need to follow orders or you will end up getting not only yourself hurt or killed, but also others." Letting the subject drop the commando shifted her attention to the young huntress's omni-tool, "Were you able to get any useful data?"

Liara glanced down at the holographic display screen of her still active omni-tool. "Yes," she replied, her satisfaction at that fact muted by everything that had happened afterward. She tapped away at the haptic interface, highlighting some of the data for the commando. "As we already knew, every collar has a different code and frequency required to disarm it. I was able to discover a relationship between the frequency of the remote detonation code and the command frequency of the collar, allowing me access to the collar's programming interface." She ducked her head before glancing up the hallway toward where they had left the slaves…the now dead slaves. "Unfortunately there was not enough time remaining for me to bypass the device's security measures and gain administrative level access so that I could disarm it."

Larisa Kurin's eyes widened in surprise at this information and then narrowed in thought, "Good work, and quick thinking looking for that connection," she praised the younger asari, now understanding why Liara had kept delaying instead of obeying immediately. The timing of their scanning and of the detonation signal together had been a random fortuitous happenstance, one that wouldn't be at all easy to recreate given the required circumstances. Still though, the maiden had endangered the team as well as the child they were supposed to protect and their orders had been clear, the safety of the civilians and themselves came before obtaining information about the Human slaves.

"She was a slave?" The young asari spoke for the first time, causing the three adults to turn toward her. "She had a weapon, why didn't she kill them instead of my mother?"

Liara's blue eyes focused upon the younger asari who appeared to be no more than thirty or so years old. The child's voice was filled with bitter anger, but her eyes revealed her keen grief to young huntress. The child was too young to be without her mother's guidance; asari children depended upon their mental connection with their mother's to keep them centered and guide them as they developed to full adulthood. Without that essential connection their ability to develop proper empathy and make close connections with others was greatly decreased. Young asari who lost their mothers were usually taken in by either their mother's sisters or mother's mother, someone whom the child already knew and trusted to re-form that mental connection and give them the guidance they needed to develop into a mentally healthy adult.

"They're too afraid of the Batarians and too conditioned to obey them to probably even think about rebelling against them," Lt. Kurin finally responded to the child's question. "They take the humans away from their mothers when they are very young and then punish them harshly for any disobedience." The commando's expression grew grimmer as she looked up the hallway toward the front room, "Any human that would take their weapon and try and fight...the Batarians have already killed them. The ones we fought today were the ones that accepted their slavery."

Succinct and accurate, Liara thought, recalling the through briefing they had received upon the new race which had included not only medical reports, but also psychological reports. Medical scans taken by the joint infiltration teams showed distinctive patterns of healed stress fractures, ligament and cartilage damage which together indicated that the Human slave soldiers had been taken while very young and then trained while their bones were still growing and weaker than an adults. That was not all the medical scans had shown, they head also shown other injuries, one's which silently bore witness of the Batarian's cruel abuse of their Human slaves, abuse that was both physical and sexual.

Speaking of abuse, the huntresses eyes narrowed as she noticed a deeper blue area and swelling along the child's crest as well as the split lip and evidence of bleeding. Her lips curved downward in a concerned frown as she stepped away from Lt. Kurin and toward the young asari, bringing up her omni-tool and initiating its medical scanning protocol. She reached out and gently touched the child's face, "You are injured," she commented as her gaze flickered toward the screen to read the results of her scan.

"The female…human struck me," the youngster responded, "when I tried to talk to her." her blue eyes flickered up the hallway briefly before returning to Liara's. "Then the batarian," her breathing picked up as fear filled her expression, "he hit me twice very hard. I thought he was going to kill me when I asked him to stop, but then he said something about having another way of punishing me after he put something in," she looked up at Liara, "what was he talking about?"

"He's dead," Aeian T'Goni informed the youngster bluntly before the younger huntress could respond to her, "He can't hurt you or anyone else anymore."

The medical scan on Liara's omni-tool beeped as it finished, drawing her attention to it. From the results of the scan, it did not appear as if the young asari was severely injured. Though she had severe bruising along one side of her crest, the cartilaginous structures had fulfilled their purpose as nature had designed them and protected her skull and brain from injury. "The bruising will be painful for several days until it heals," the huntress reported her findings aloud for both the child's sake and her companions, "but there is no permanent damage. As for this," Liara bent down to examine the child's injured lip more closely, "some medical seal will bind the skin together so that it will not scar."

"It does hurt," the youth confirmed, raising one hand to gingerly touch the bruised area of her crest. Then she asked them once again, "What was he going to do to me?"

Confronted with the question for a second time Liara finally answered, "The Batarians put a microchip in their slaves which directly stimulates the brain's pain centers. They use it to punish their slaves when they don't want to physically hurt them." She didn't go into any more detail about the exact process or the fact that the slaver race did not use any anesthetic upon the slave during the procedure. The child had already been frightened enough without knowing what else the Batarians had planned to do to her.

The youth seemed to mull that over in her mind for a moment before looking up the hallway and asking, "Did they have them?"

It was fairly obvious who the child was referring to, "Yes, the Batarians put them in all their slaves," Liara confirmed.

The young asari stared up the hallway for a moment longer before turning back to her fellow asari. "Thank you for saving me," she said to them, and then turned to look the other way…toward the back of the home. A shift in her breathing was all the warning they had before the child began crying, "Mother…mother is there in the kitchen, the female slave killed her."

Instantly Liara moved to kneel and take the youngster into her arms, saying softly, "I am sorry we were not able to arrive earlier. Your mother is with the Goddess now and has been embraced by her. She is no longer bound to either life or death but merely awaits you in that timeless existence." The child nodded as she leaned into the comfort of the young huntress's arms, finally giving into her grief now that the danger of her own life abruptly ending had passed.

Lt. Kurin moved closer, placing one comforting hand on the young asari's shoulder as she knelt down beside them. "What is your name?" she questioned the child.

"Tarina T'Coura," the youngster stifled her sobs long enough to answer.

"Your family is from Armali?" Liara questioned recognizing a common perioikos, or working class, family name from the great Thessian city-state of her birth. Her fellow Armali native, Aeian T'Goni, who had been keeping watch, looked over in curiosity as she also recognized the family name.

The child nodded, "Yes, my yiayià, Yasera T'Coura, and my theia, Eumelia T'Coura, both live in Armali."

Liara was relieved to hear that the youngster's grandmother and aunt still lived; either would take her in and raise her as their own. A similar circumstance had occurred in her own family when one of her cousins, Aikaterine, had lost her mother, Vasalika T'Soni, when she was only six years old. Her yiayià, Matriarch Livia T'Soni, the Grameno of the T'Soni lineage and theia to Liara's own mother, Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, had taken in her granddaughter and raised her.

Ten minutes later, after having made their way out of the house via a side entrance so that they would not have to go out through either the front room or the kitchen area, Lt. Kurin lead their small group to where the Fourth Rapid Reaction Force had set up base camp until regular defense forces from Illium could relieve them. There they would make arrangements for both Tarina and her mother's body to be sent to her remaining family on Thessia. As they made their way through Zesmeni's underground cavern system, Liara contemplated how close the Hegemony had come to successfully taking this small mining colony. Not only would the Batarians have denied the Republics its militarily important resources of titanium and lithium, but it would have served as a staging ground for what was undoubtedly the Hegemonies true target in the Crescent Nebula - the vibrant Asari colony trade world of Illium.

Fifteen years ago any suggestion that she would be contemplating military strategy as a novice huntress would have left the archeologist speechless with incredulity at the very suggestion. Prior to 4700 RE Liara had been focused upon researching the Protheans, afire with a desire to find out what had happened to them to cause the demise of their great Empire. The Asari had come across enough Prothean ruins on eezo poisoned, destruction torn dead worlds that they knew the Protheans had been fighting a galaxy wide war when something had happened to wipe out not only themselves but their mysterious enemy as well.

Then in 4701 RE, one of the many non-functional relays the Asari and Salarians had discovered during their galactic explorations had come online and become responsive to transit commands. A joint Salarian and Asari exploration team had been sent though the newly active relay and discovered that it lead to the Attican Beta Cluster. A few months later the exploration discovered a Prothean colony planet covered with ruins whose atmosphere was poisoned with severe eezo contamination. Both the Asari and Salarian's had discovered several such planets in their explorations. Usually such ruins were dangerous to explore even for Asari due to the severity of the eezo poisoning and what exploration could be safely carried out yielded few answers as to why they were in such condition.

At first glance the planet, which the explorers named Feros, seemed to be the same as all the other Prothean colony worlds that had been discovered and then a scanning probe discovered signs of an underground installation buried deep within an older mountain range. The bunker, once its main entrance was discovered and breeched, proved to be nearly intact including a number of the optical cores of its data network. Both governments immediately organized and sent teams of data recovery experts, archeological researchers, and linguistic experts to Feros to discover what information the bunker held about the Protheans and the cause of the demise of their Empire.

Thirteen years ago, Dr. Liara T'Soni had been excited and honored to have been chosen as one of those archeological researchers for the Asari Republics despite her relative youth compared to the other asari chosen for the research team. It had taken almost six months for the technicians to recover what data they could from the ancient optical drives and then another year for the archeologists and linguistic experts to translate the data. Once the data was translated however, the information contained on those drives answered almost every question they had about the Protheans, their Empire, and how it all had come to an end.

The Protheans had been involved in an Empire wide war, but not against a race of created artificial intelligences as many researchers had believed…or not exactly. Their enemies, which the Protheans had named Reapers, were a race of organic-synthetic constructs which for billions of years had harvested the galaxy of intelligent space faring life in a cycle of galactic extinction. The Protheans knew that each harvested race was used in the construction of new Reaper for their own people had been herded together and forced into massive Reaper processing facilities for the production of the raw organic material required for a Reaper's construction.

The Reapers had come through a massive space station which the Protheans had discovered early in their explorations of the mass relay system. The Protheans named the station the Citadel and made it the center of their galactic empire, thus it was easy for the Reapers to nearly completely destroy the majority of the Prothean Empire's government in the first few hours of the war. The Citadel had been a trap, hiding the fact that it was actually a massive relay itself that linked to where the Reapers had been waiting in dark space outside the galaxy.

Even though the Protheans threw the entire might of their galaxy wide Empire against the Reapers they steadily lost system after system to the Reapers seemingly inexorable advance. After nearly a century of struggling merely to slow down their genocidal aggressors, the Protheans were on the verge of extinction. In desperation, the remaining free Protheans concentrated all their efforts into building a massive weapon called the Crucible whose plans they had discovered from a data cache left by the Inusannon, the preeminent race of the previous cycle. The Protheans had lacked an essential part of the weapon however; a missing piece named the Catalyst which channeled and refined the energy released by the weapon so that it only affected the Reapers. Realizing that their defeat and the end of their race was inevitable if they did not finish the weapon, the Protheans, driven by desperation, discovered a way to activate the Crucible without the Catalyst.

The result of activating the Crucible without the necessary component to channel the energy released from the device was uncertain, and predictions by their scientists ranged from dire to merely short term damage to the mass relay system. Perhaps something terrible might happen was not the same as being certain something terrible might happen however and it was certain that the Reapers would win within the next few decades if something drastic did not occur to stop them. With the threat of extinction overshadowing them, the remaining Prothean military commanders decided to activate the Crucible. As they had hoped the massive amount of energy released from the weapon was channeled though the mass relay system, spreading from solar system to solar system and destroying every Reaper that it came in contact with throughout the galaxy.

On the occupied planets such as Feros unfortunately the Reaper's destruction came with a very high price as the direst of the scientists' predictions came true. The mass effect cores of the dreadnought sized synthetic-organic constructs exploded, creating widespread destruction and massive craters in the planet's surface where they had been standing and releasing poisonous amounts of eezo into the atmosphere. The few Prothean survivors of the colony planet could not escape the Attican Betta Cluster either for when they attempted it they found that the mass relay was inactive and unresponsive. Cut off from the rest of the galaxy and trapped on a rapidly dying planet the few remaining Protheans upon Feros eventually died as well.

Nearly Forty-eight thousand years ago and against impossible odds, the Protheans had succeeded in destroying the Reapers and ending their billion year long cycle of destruction. In the end, it proved to be a hollow empty victory for them as the Protheans ultimately followed the Reapers into the end of their existence. However they had ensured that no other sentient species would suffer the fate as they or those races that had come before them, something for which the Salarians and Asari were very grateful once they finished deciphering the information they had found in the optical data arrays. The idea that the Reapers could have been awaiting in dark space for the Asari and Salarian's to reach a stage where they were deemed worthy of harvesting before descending upon them as they had the Protheans was a terrifying one.

The discovery of the bunker upon Feros solved many ancient mysteries such as the cause of the two bright stars that had briefly appeared in Thessia's skies over twenty thousand years ago. In 3370 RE the Asari Republic sent a long range exploration ship to the location of the event, six years later the vessel arrived at the site and found minuscule debris and massive amounts of dispersed eezo. There was enough dispersed material for the asari surveyors to prove that at least two Mass Relays used to exist within the system as well as a large artificial structure. With the additional information gleaned from the Prothean data drives the researchers now knew that the large artificial structure had been the Citadel and the eezo had come from both the the relay hidden inside the massive space station as well as the regular mass relay nearby. It had taken the light from the destruction of the Citadel and nearby mass relay when the Crucible had been activated nearly twenty-five thousand years to reach Thessia and show up for almost a month in the night sky as two closely spaced bright stars.

Since ancient times in the night skies of Thessia and Sur'Kesh stars had abruptly brightened and then remained that way. Astronomers of both races had theorized that their suns had went nova but had been at a loss for an explanation as to why so many nova's had occurred across the galaxy at the same time, approximately fifty thousand years ago. Knowing what they did now the researchers were able to confidently propose a reason for those suns going nova. In some solar systems the mass relays instead of being damaged by the Crucible's energy had been destroyed by it, releasing enough energy to destabilize the solar systems nearby sun and causing it to explode.

The information the Asari and Salarian researchers had discovered in the bunker also explained why so many relays were inactive or active but appeared to have no other matching relay at the far side making transit though them impossible. The entire mass relay system had been severely damaged when the Protheans had activated the Crucible. Some relays had been destroyed leaving parts of the transit system impassable and others had merely been damaged and required time, a very long time, to repair themselves.

When the Asari had first developed space flight they had eventually discovered the mass relay at the outer edge of their solar system. Unfortunately the relay had been unresponsive to their efforts at discovering its purpose and eventually their space program had focused its efforts on developing a better faster than light drive capable of reaching the four other solar systems within their own local area of space which the astronomers believed might have habitable planets for colonization. The Asari had already colonized Sanves, Lucia and Niacal when the mass relay in their homeworld's solar system, the Parthina System, finally began emitting signals in 3344 RE. The Asari were finally able to activate the relay and discovered it was a means of space transportation that would allow them to cross vast distances in a very short period of time allowing the Asari to finally begin exploring the larger galaxy outside of their local space. The Salarian's had much of the same issue only it had taken their relay another three hundred years to activate.

On a more personal level Liara had felt vindicated by the information they had found within the Prothean bunker. The asari maiden had written several papers theorizing that the Protheans had been only the most recent galaxy spanning sentient race to meet with a sudden end, but they had been largely ignored due to her age and the fact that the conclusions she had drawn contradicted those of older and better known researchers. Before the Protheans had become a galactic power there had been a race known as the Inusannon, and before them yet other galactic empires whose existence had also abruptly ended in a regular and repeated pattern of galactic extinction. The Reapers and their cycle of extinction explained the patterns Liara had seen in the data she had spent so many decades researching.

As satisfying as it had been to have been selected for such an important Prothean research site as the Feros bunker and then to have her theories of cyclic extinction proven correct, once most of her questions about the Protheans had been answered the thought of spending the rest of her life studying them did not hold the fascination for Liara as it had before the discovery at Feros. The studious maiden had thought she would spend her entire life studying the Protheans and discovering their history, now at the age of one hundred and two, she at a loss as to what she wanted to do with the remainder of her life.

Though she was very close to her mother, Matriarch Benezia T'Soni, and had loved the seven years she spent on her mother's sitruua plantations on the colony world of Lusia learning about how to raise and process the plant used by the asari as their main source of tea, she was not yet ready to devote her full attentions to the business. Like all maidens she was possessed of the desire to explore and learn about her universe at this stage of her life.

While she had been upon a Prothean research excavation on the planet Aethoyner on the borders of Asari claimed space, the Hegemony had sent a unit of batarian soldiers to take her captive. The Hegemony had planned on using her safety to force her mother to give them information about certain pieces of weapons technology recently developed by the Asari Republics. Fortunately Matriarch Benezia had happened to learn about the attempt though her contacts in the Union, who themselves didn't want the Batarians to acquire such technologies, and was able to send a team of commandoes to prevent the kidnapping.

Immediately afterward the matriarch enrolled her daughter in one of the most well renown biotic training facilities upon Thessia, Elibio Academy just outside of Serrice. Liara had finished up her Doctorate degree in Xeno Anthropology and Prothean Studies while attending classes at the Academy to teach her better control over her biotics and unarmed combat training to protect herself if for some reason she could not use her biotics. In short she had gotten most of the same training that young maidens received when they were interested in becoming Huntresses in one of the many Republic Guard units on Thessia or a colony world.

Less than two years after the discovery upon Feros the Hegemony attacked Esan for a second time and were able to overrun the planet's defenders using vorcha and a new race of slave soldier that the Asari had never before encountered. Almost a year later the Hegemony repeated the tactic to successfully take the Salarian colony world of Erinle. In response, both governments began building more ships and began developing strategies to counter the Batarian's attacks. The Hegemony was obviously intending on undertaking a protracted siege of both Asari and Salarian space, taking one planet at a time with overwhelming force and then entrenching it against any efforts of the Republics or Union to retake their territory.

Known for being outspoken almost ruthlessly blunt in her manner of speaking, Matriarch Aethyta was the first to openly call for more asari maidens to become huntresses and commandoes rather than going into business or joining mercenary companies. In a subtle shift of Republic policy several other matriarchs followed her lead, though in less strident tones and using less blunt speech. Matriarch Benezia, Liara's mother was one of them, she had always advocated that the Republics needed to be self-sufficient in all respects and that while they should look for and develop solid alliances with the other races they should not become dependent upon those same allies.

Concerned by her mother's growing focus upon the actions of the Hegemony, Liara decided to undertake her own research of the slaver race. It did not take the highly intelligent maiden very long to understand why the Hegemonies new tactics and level of aggression were so greatly concerning the Matriarchs. The loss of Esan had weakened the Republics by a small amount. If the Hegemony kept successfully attacking Asari colony worlds they would soon noticeably affect the ability of the Asari to defend themselves against the Batarian's aggression due to several factors. Lost civilian populations, lost military personnel and naval ships, lost raw material access, a general lessening of economic robustness in the Asari economy, everything was tied together and affected each other. The result of her analysis was obvious and inescapable; if the Hegemony's advances were not soon halted there was a very real chance that they would eventually defeat her people.

The T'Soni linage traced its line back to Cerelia T'Soni who as a young maiden vowed to end the cruelty of the ardat-yakshi lead Myndourites after seeing her village and parents slaughtered by their forces. Cerelia eventually rallied an alliance of tribes and led the forces that had defeated the Myndourites, ending their six hundred year long reign of fear and tyranny over a significant portion of Thessia. Later in her life, after the death of her bondmate, Cerelia had gone on to found the Justicar Order, seeing the need of the innocent for an order of dedicated protectors. It did not take Liara long to decide that she could do no less than her renown ancestor. The Republics needed huntresses and Commandoes to protect their people from the aggression of the Batarian Hegemony much more than they needed Prothean researchers. Thus in 4706 RE the young maiden turned aside from her studious past and joined the Armali Republican Guard as a Huntress trainee despite her mother's silent fears for her safety.


End file.
